The “candidate” Japanese national soccer team A set up a massive budget for the Qatar Asian Cup. Not only 26 players on the short list came to Qatar. A total of 31 players, including five “training partners,” visited Qatar. 경마
The Japanese national team, led by Coach Hajime Moriyasu, is a strong candidate for the Qatar Asian Cup that will kick off on Wednesday (Korea time). Japan is ranking 17th in the FIFA rankings as of December 2023. It is the first among the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) countries. It has achieved “successive wins” since June last year. It has swept nine consecutive official matches. At a closed exhibition game held at Alersal Stadium in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday, it blanked Jordan 6 to 1. Jordan will face off with the “Clinsman” team in the second Group E match. “Legalbet,” a media outlet specializing in overseas betting, has predicted that Japan has the best chance of winning the title at this year’s event. The media outlet said that it is not surprising that Japan ranks first in the probability of winning the title.
Moriyasu called in a large number of overseas players ahead of the upcoming Asian Games. Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad), who is considered the No. 1 player among Asian players, Takumi Minamino (AS Monaco), Hidemasa Morita (Sporting), Ko Itakura (Mönchengladbach), Utah Nakayama (Huddersfield Town), Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arnall), and Hiroki Ito (Stuttgart) were all summoned. Japan entered Qatar early on the 5th and started training for acclimation. On the 9th, it had a 6-1 victory over Jordan in a closed friendly match.
There is one thing to note. Japan accompanied five young players to its training camp from the 4th to the 23rd. It has one goalkeeper, two defenders, one midfielder, and one striker. Keisuke Nakamura (Shizuoka High School), Leon Ichihara (Oyama U-18), Justin Honma (Vissel Kobe U-18), Yuto Oseki (Kawasaki Frontale), and Ryoga Kida (Nagoya Grampus) all five promising players born in 2005.
According to local media in Japan, when the final list was announced on the 1st, Masakuni Yamamoto, the director of the Japanese national team, said, “We will select five training partners from among the core players of the U-19 national team and train them together. We are thinking about Japan’s future. Some of the current players have grown from past training partners.”
In fact, Tomiyasu, who used to be a “training partner,” has grown into a defender representing Japan. He accompanied him as a training partner at the 2016 Rio Olympics. According to Japanese media outlet Sports Hochi, Tomiyasu gave advice for younger players. “I hope that the players who came as training partners will grow into A-team members. Doan Ritz (Freiburg) and I joined the A-team when we were 19-20. Kubo also joined the national team at that time. About half of the players were already in the A-team when we competed in the Tokyo Olympics. We need to step up further. New players are coming out, including younger ones. Competition is quite fierce. It’s good for the team. I hope there will be more virtuous cycles,” he said.
Not only the A team but also national teams by age are showing good performance these days. Japan’s U-17 team won the AFC U-17 Asian Cup last year and advanced to the round of 16 for the third consecutive FIFA U-17 World Cup. The U-23 team is preparing for the finals at the AFC U-23 Asian Cup in 2024 and the final qualifying round for the Paris Olympics. It also beat Argentina 5 to 2 last year.
Japan will play its first Group D match against Vietnam on Wednesday, before facing Iraq on Wednesday and Indonesia on Wednesday. Japan is the champion of the Asian Cup with the most wins. It grabbed the title in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2011. It aims to win its fifth title in 12 years at the latest event.